The Silk Road Arts Festival - The Curious Case Of Sanzang

I am impressed by a piece of leaflet when I was viewing an exhibiton in the City Hall. It is because it is so similar to a famous oil painting "Tian'an Men" of Yue Min-jun (丘敏君). The performance is called "Heading West 2: The Curious Case of Sanzang" which will be taken place in the Kwai Tsing Threatre Auditorium in mid-October.

intentional use of it is persuasion on commercial aspect. It aims to advertsing this programme. The targeted audience is the general public. It encourages people with different age, gender, ethnicity, education, income to enjoy the show. People intered in performance art can be attracted, while other people can also be attracted by the funny and imitating design of the poster.

It is one of the series of events of the Silk Road Arts Festival, which aims to provide a showcase of amazing cultural gems from the past in the Silk Road, and a platform for contemporary creative exchange among artists from various parts of the world. The festival is oragnized by teh Leisure and Cultural Services Department and here is the offical website: http://www.silkroadfestival.gov.hk/en/prog/west.html .

The theatre performance has a background of the year 2022 in Gaochang. The ancient ruin reborn as the ultimate Green City in the Taklamakan Desert of Xinjiang, China. The mysterious court case of Sanzang is unveiled through the unreaonable testimonies of One Lawyer from Hong Kong playing seven witnesses.

Although the show has not begin, I have visited the blog of the script writer to understand its background. http://headingwest2.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-post_14.html

The image it is imitating, "Tian an-men" of Yue Min-jun is criticising the cruel and unhuman action of the Chinese government during the Tian an-men incident in 1989. The people looking other people being killed is laughing, means that there is a lack of affection and care between Chinese. Even the people being killed are laughing, reflecting their silly as well as lacking of power and freedom under the strong political power.

I think the imitation of the designer of this poster is very good. He sucessfully borrow the visual elements of the former one and express another ideas fluently. The show is using the appreciated Buddist character Tang San-zang (The name is also printed on the T-shirt of the poster) as it represents some good human quality such as being helpful and sincere, accepting other's comments, co-operation with other people, hard working to achieve his own belief, respecting culture and history, and love of nature. By intergrating this historical character and an unsettled law case with a background of Hong Kong through imagination, a strong critisism with contrast can be made.

The wrong government politics, envirnmental pollution, increasing level of dictatorship of the government is reflected by the killer. People's uncare of living culture and lack of intention of expressing their own idea are reflected by the people being killed.